Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“What do we do, Miss Jessie?” Nathanial asked, always quiet until needed. He stepped over the exhibit line and into the space between the red rope and the non-lethal flowers.
“Oh, careful there, Nathanial,” Edgar warned. “You’re in the danger zone.”
More voices filtered through, closer now.
“Dave, you grapple with that thing,” I told him, stepping in front of Edgar. Tristan picked the vampire up and pivoted, depositing him out of the way.
“Mind the flowers of the exhibit,” Edgar called.
I sighed. “Yes, try not to hurt Edgar’s non-lethal flowers.”
“Jessie, this is not the time to be supportive of his flower hobby,” Jasper said in bewilderment.
“We’ll do what we can,” I replied. “Okay, I’ll use magic to saw at the base. Once we get this one, we’ll carefully get the other one. Hurry now, and watch out for that poison. Edgar, how fast will it kill?”
“Not for at least an hour, Jessie. It’ll just hurt before then. You’ll have plenty of time to heal Dave if something goes wrong.”
“This whole thing is wrong,” I grumbled, getting to the rope fence with my hands out.
The flower faced us, looking between Dave and me with feral intelligence.
“I have taken down magical flowers before, Jessie,” Dave said. “I know what to do.”
“Well…those were a little less hardy,” Edgar told us. “They had fewer organic weapons. What you’re looking at here are Attack Flowers 3.0. They really are quite revolutionary.”
“And they’re at a county fair,” Ulric said dryly. “We should’ve brought my mom. She would’ve beaten it into submission by now.”
He was probably right.
“Dave, you cover that side of her, and I’ll cover this one,” Tristan said, moving into position. “Poison doesn’t affect me as quickly as most.”
“I can help,” Cyra said. “I’ll burn it.”
“You’d end up burning the whole exhibit down,” I told her.
“Very probably,” she replied. “Would that be a bad thing?”
“No,” Jasper responded without hesitation.
“That wounds my soul a little,” Edgar murmured.
The flower shook wildly now, its leaves fluttering, its stalk jiggling, and its head moving so aggressively I was surprised all the petals didn’t fly off.
“Here we go,” I said, my heart hammering.
It launched toward me, somehow sensing I was the ringleader. Dave grabbed it before it could reach me, getting sliced by a leaf that sent blood dripping from his hand down its stalk. Tristan grabbed its head, wrenching it toward him. His grunt said something had impaled him and it hurt.
I dodged a leaf, felt the slice of another, and exploded into my gargoyle form to keep from taking harsher damage. My clothes tore away from me. Another leaf hit my tougher gargoyle hide, barely breaking through. I called up magic quickly, using a harsh spell to hack at the stalk. That spell would’ve sawn an arm in half, but it barely caused a surface wound.
“Think it through,” I heard Sebastian say from somewhere behind me. That was his anthem for when a dangerous and perplexing problem presented itself to him. “Think it through.”
I tried another spell as Dave and Tristan fought the flower, Tristan trying to rip its head off and Dave tearing at a leaf. This spell sliced a little deeper, and the flower screeched—a high-pitched sound that Edgar must’ve borrowed from the Ivy House dolls. I shivered in disgust. I didn’t need any more nightmares resulting from that house.
Sebastian rattled off a couple of spells for me to try at maximum power. He waded into the fray, shoving Tristan to the flower’s opposite side so he could bend down with me. He stepped gingerly despite hurrying, careful of the non-lethal flowers, supportive of the team to the last. He was a keeper.
I put out an arm, blocking a leaf from stabbing Sebastian.
“Thanks,” Sebastian said distractedly, hanging back behind me a little as I took the cuts and scrapes and continued to saw at the thing with magic.
Dave ripped off another leaf before roaring, and I was suddenly glad we’d left him invisible and muted. The whole pavilion would’ve heard that.
My previous slice began to heal. A new leaf sprouted where Dave had ripped the other off.
What was this thing, a bionic flower? What the hell had Edgar mixed together to create it? I’d’ve been impressed if it weren’t giving us such a hard time.
I stepped back, power welling, angry now. Supporting Edgar be damned, I’d smite this whole exhibit if I had to.
“Wait, wait…” Sebastian grabbed my arm to stop me from unleashing a spell. “Wait, I have an idea. Call them off. I think we can go a different route.”
I took a step back as Dave punched the flower in the proverbial face. It doubled down its efforts, more leaves than he had hands, fighting him back. He bled from various locations, blood dripping down into his hair.
Tristan had gashes on his face and across his chest, his shirt badly ripped and both colors of his blood oozing down his skin. He yanked at its head petals, but instead of coming off, they jerked the flower head around as if they were hair. He scratched at the area where an eye should’ve been, but it did no good.